Lemelson - MIT InvenTeam

You do not have to know how to do everything but you do need to have the confidence to ask questions and to find the people that do know how answer the questions. So often the hardest part is asking the right question(s) so you get the answers you need.

Today, Lynden InvenTeam visits Tilting Motor Works in Marysville, WA. Bob Mighell gave us a tour of his shop. Thanks to Rob Takamura from NWIRC for joining us on our tour and for introducing us to Bob. Bob pointed out the fine intricacies and history of hyme joints. Bob also showed our team the leaning capabilities of an early prototype. This visit was truly eye opening for our team. We asked a lot of questions and got really great answers! It was also nice to have Bob Mighell put some of his input into our design!

Popular Science featured an article on Lynden InvenTeam 2012 on December 13th 2011. This is great news because word has been getting out. Lemelson MIT has been trying for years to get an article to Popular Science and its great to know that our invention made it to that level!

The Lynden InvenTeam did our phone blitz today and it was really a rush of excitement as we called in for potential sponsers. Our guests at this meeting were Diane Kamionka and Robert Takemura from the NW Innovation Resource Center who came to mentor and guide us through the donation process. Many thanks to them for taking time out of their day to help us out! Also, we were awarded with really delicious cookies made by Gay Weidkamp. Can someone say scrumptious?

Today we were invited to the school board meeting to do a presentation about our invention and explain to them what our invention was and how we were partnering up with local buisnesses to achieve our goal. Staff and School board members really got involved and asked us a lot of questions and I could tell that they were excited about our project. I can honestly say that when each of our team members spoke, we all sounded confident and sure about our invention. The whole experience wasn't as nerve racking as I would have thought. And most important, we got to show our prototype to the audience and that was very neat. Not only were they friendly, they also took real interest in what we were saying. Just seeing their facial expressions when they saw the prototype was encouraging in a way. If this is how they reactcted with our prototype then it will be very exciting to see their reactions to a more avanced model.

Our InvenTeam went over to Janicki Industries today! To start off, I can easily say that say that this experience was in fact very neat. Not only did we get to see spectacular equipment and projects but throughout our whole visit, we really got insight on our invention. I'm sure I speak for the whole team when I say that the more we interacted with people from Janicki Industries, the simpler it was to combine our ideas together. We also got to play around with certain various components that we could possibly see going into our invention. "I learned that multiple ideas lead into creative inventing", Tack Dallas says. After a long day at Janicki, we finally returned back to Lynden High School where we then held a meeting and had a pizza celebration in the Rhino Lab!

The Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam Initiative celebrates outstanding innovators and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. InvenTeams are groups of high school students, teachers, and mentors working together to create technological solutions to real-world problems.

Our Lynden InvenTeam has been awarded $9,885 in grant funding to pursue our yearlong invention project of designing and building a three wheeled recumbent trike with a composite frame. The ‘trike’ would allow a rider to set a speed at which the hydraulic system would give the rider the ability to use their body to lean & turn. As the trike slows below the pre-set speed it becomes a safe, more stable & rigid platform. This invention awards persons with balance limitations the opportunity to experience the joy of bicycle riding while reaping the benefits of core body strengthening.

Lynden’s invention has been praised as having some of the highest commercial potential of this year’s entrants. Therefore, we would love to have you follow us through our journey. Stay posted for more updates.